Last Night In Baseball: Jacob Misiorowski Shattered His Own Fastest Pitch Record

There is always baseball happening — almost too much baseball for one person to follow themselves. Don’t worry, we’re here to help you by figuring out what you missed but shouldn’t have. Here are all the best moments from last night in Major League Baseball: When Jacob Misiorowski threw 104 mph in a start at the end of May, it was 104 if you rounded up. When he threw 105 mph on June 12, that was also the case: he had actually been clocked at 104.5 mph, which is absurdly fast, yet, but not quite 105 mph. Regardless, they were both, at the same, the fastest-ever pitches thrown by a starting pitcher even without rounding up from a decimal. On Friday, Miz threw an actual 105 mph. Well, that’s not quite accurate, either; he threw 105.5 mph. One-hundred and five miles per hour, plus another half-mile per hour for good measure. Whew. Cubs center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong managed to foul it off, but he also immediately went into his swing when the ball was released. Of course, you have to do that with Misiorowski, between the velocity and the fact that his long limbs mean he’s releasing the ball that much closer to the plate in the first place. The 105.5 mph is the fastest for a starter, and tied for third-fastest from any pitcher, per MLB’s Sarah Langs. The reason this difference in role matters is because relievers have, comparatively, an easier time rearing back and firing at full effort. Since they are just in for 10 or 20 pitches or an inning, however you want to measure the possibility, there is no need to save something for later. Whereas if a starter knows they have a 90-100 pitch night in front of them, well. There has to be something left in the tank for later. Miz is just 0.3 mph the fastest-ever recorded pitch, from closer Aroldis Chapman back in 2016. It feels almost inevitable at this point that he will surpass that record, which is wild for that very reason. Misiorowski is more than just speed, though. He limited the Cubs to two runs in six innings, striking out eight batters while allowing six total baserunners. This was Misiorowski not at his sharpest, which is saying something: his 1.45 ERA is the third-lowest through 16 starts in the last 50 years, also per Langs. Milwaukee would win, 6-2, and become the second team to reach the 50-win mark in the process. What is going on with the Royals right now? On Thursday, Kansas City was nearly no-hit before a ninth-inning homer, but the Royals still lost by 11 runs. And on Friday, things were… worse. The White Sox scored 22 runs on the Royals, and gave up one (1). That’s a 21-run difference, for those that don’t want to count but do want the emphasis. Third baseman Miguel Vargas opened the scoring with a three-run homer off of Mitch Spence in the third inning, scoring first baseman Jacob Gonzalez and left fielder Sam Antonacci. Second baseman Sam Meidroth would then single in a run to make it 4-0, and center fielder Tristan Peters then drove him in — as well as DH Andrew Benintendi — with a single to center. The scoring in the third did not stop there: Spence was still in the game, and allowed a three-run homer to Gonzalez in his second at-bat of the inning. Somehow, the Royals still didn’t have anyone ready to go at this point, so Spence allowed Antonacci to pick up his second single of the inning, and then gave up an RBI double to Vargas to make it 10-0, White Sox. Beck Way finally, mercifully, came on in relief, and got the last out of the inning before any more damage could be done. At least, in that inning. The bottom of the fourth opened with Benintendi going yard off of Way, and then, in the fifth, catcher Kyle Teel, only recently back on the big-league roster, hit his first dinger of the season to make it 13-1, Chicago. And this despite the pitching change to Lucas Erceg, too. John Schreiber came out for the sixth in place of Erceg, but did not do any better. In fact, he was notably worse. The first three batters all reached, then Peters blasted a grand slam to make it 17-1. Schreiber followed that up by allowing a double to Peters, and another single to Antonacci. At this point, the Royals just left him out there, but he got out of the inning without either of them scoring. Alex Lange came on in the seventh, and also got slammed — he was the last Royals’ pitcher of the night to give up runs, though. He allowed the first three batters to reach, with Meidroth driving in a run on the third of those, then after retiring one batter also allowed the next three to reach — by the time he was pulled, it was 20-1, and the next reliever ended up allowing both inherited runners to score, as well. And there’s your final: 22-1. The White Sox won by so much that they now have a positive run differential for the season at +18, which is tied for the second-best in the American League. What is even going on in the AL, and with Kansas City, and… we have lots of questions, yeah. The Phillies defeated the Mets, 2-1. The Phillies were able to defeat the Mets because of this catch from center fielder Derek Hill. You have to see this one… …and then watch it again. This time with slowed down replays and shots of Mets fans whose body language and faces say, “why is this happening to me?” How does Hill get that much extension? How does his arm not break off at the shoulder when he hits the wall? Look at the smile on starting pitcher Zack Wheeler’s face when the camera cuts back to him! He knows how lucky he is to not have just given up a two-run shot. What a play, a real beauty. Oh, Rockies. So close, but for what purpose in the end? Through five innings, Colorado was losing 7-0 to the Twins in Minnesota. There was still plenty of game left, so long as the Rockies could slow the Twins’ bats, and they did! Colorado started answering those unanswered runs in the eighth, when left fielder Mickey Moniak drove in a run on a ground out, then catcher Hunter Goodman plated another with a sac fly, before first baseman TJ Rumfield singled to score a third without giving up an out to do it. The ninth is where things got more serious. Second baseman and No. 9 hitter Edouard Julien doubled in a run, then outfielder Jake McCarthy hit a two-run shot to bring Colorado within a run. There was still just one out, and Goodman came up with a runner on and absolutely demolished a baseball. This one went 451 feet after coming off of his bat at over 116 mph, and put the Rockies up, 8-7. Comeback complete. Or not. In a move that would come back to haunt the Rockies, following a Rumfield double to put another runner in scoring position, third baseman Willi Castro grounded out and then Freeman attempted a bunt with two down, right back to the pitcher, Anthony Banda. Rumfield was stranded, and the response from the Twins was center fielder Byron Buxton hitting a game-tying single in the bottom of the ninth. In the 10th, lead runner Freeman then was called out at home trying to score on a ball hit by shortstop Ezequiel Tovar, leaving the Rockies with two outs and a runner on first; the third out would be made by the very next batter. The Twins, meanwhile, saw their first hitter of the next inning intentionally walk to create force outs and double-play potential, but instead, reliever Jimmy Herget threw a wild pitch and Kyler Fedko advanced to third. First baseman Royce Lewis would take care of the rest. What a heartbreaking loss for the Rockies, made worse by actually achieving the comeback part as far as runs go, but then having a series of poor decisions and mistakes cost them in the end. The Padres have a four-game winning streak going, which wouldn’t be that notable except for the teams it’s come against: San Diego swept the Braves, which helped other teams like the Brewers and Dodgers leapfrog them in the standings, and then took game one of the weekend series from Los Angeles, 7-1, too. San Diego’s run differential is now positive again, too, which is amazing considering how few runs they scored in May during an abysmal team-wide performance. Things probably seemed like they would go better for the Dodgers at first, since shortstop Mookie Betts hit his 10th homer of the year on the first pitch he saw. The issue for the Dodgers is that this was all they would manage off San Diego pitching, and also first baseman Ty France hit a three-run shot in the bottom of the same inning. Dodgers’ starter Roki Sasaki struggled, last just four innings while walking more batters (five) than he struck out (two). Meanwhile, Walker Buehler, facing his old team, held Los Angeles to one run, three hits and three walks over 5 ⅓ innings, then handed things off to the bullpen to shut things down the rest of the way. San Diego’s offense came alive again in a four-run eighth, but it was unnecessary with the pen’s performance. The Padres aren’t exactly threatening the Dodgers in the NL West — they are still eight games back even with the W — but the goal is more staying ahead in a tightly contested wild-card race, anyway: San Diego is .001 points of winning percentage ahead of the Cubs for the second wild-card slot, half-a-game up on the Cardinals, a game up on the Marlins, 2.5 up on the Diamondbacks and three more teams within five beyond them. Every win matters in that race, even now, because it will likely be necessary later on. Red Sox-Yankees is always a big deal, even if Boston isn’t in the race this year. Still, sometimes, you can only get so amped up for a fight. Adam Warren didn’t like Red Sox first baseman Willson Contreras flipping his bat after a walk — a normal occurrence for Contreras — and the two started jawing at each other, so the dugouts started to empty. Slowly. Like, really slowly. There’s even a hug in the middle of it all! Boston would end up winning, 6-1, and then the dugouts emptied then, too, at about the same pace. Because the game was over and it was time to go home, you see. Ezequiel Duran is apparently magical. How else do you explain avoiding this tag? In the sixth inning, the Rangers’ shortstop attempted a steal after a single off of Blue Jays’ reliever Spencer Miles. He didn’t make it anywhere near the bag, but was also so literally off-base that he avoided the initial tag, too. This set up a situation where it was now a race between bag and tag, with second baseman Ernie Clement the competition. Duran somehow avoided getting touched here, too, and certainly not in the conventional way. What a weird play! The Rangers would win, 5-4, keeping them even for the third wild-card in the AL and Toronto a game back. The Pirates got rookie shortstop Konnor Griffin back in their lineup for the first time since May 26 — he went on the IL with an elbow strain — and he picked up where he left off. Griffin went yard on the second pitch he saw, in the first inning, to put Pittsburgh up 1-0 over the Reds. Cincinnati responded with four-straight hits to begin the second inning… …and then made it 3-1 on a sacrifice fly by center fielder Blake Dunn. Shortstop Elly De La Cruz added a fourth run with another sacrifice, and the score would stand at 4-1 until the Pirates’ lineup woke up to tie it thanks to three combined runs in the fifth and sixth. The 4-4 score would hold until the top of the eighth, when Mason Montgomery entered the game as a reliever for the Pirates. First baseman Sal Stewart singled to start the inning, then Noelvi Marte entered the game as a pinch-hitter to give the Reds the platoon advantage. Marte ended up blasting the sixth pitch of the at-bat, a 97-mph four-seamer, 405 feet and over the fence in left-center. He crushed that one, and it would be all the scoring for either side the rest of the way. The Pirates’ bullpen blew it yet again: as a unit, they have a 4.32 ERA and are responsible for 16 losses — that’s just the pitching stat of losses, though, and doesn’t count times where the pen allowed inherited runners from a starter to score, causing a defeat. Pittsburgh needs to upgrade that bullpen, sooner or later, to have a shot in the aforementioned contested wild-card race.